The Centre for Language Acts and Worldmaking is delighted to welcome Professor Mercedes García-Arenal (Consejo Superior de Investigación Científica, Madrid) for a seminar on her current research into the reading habits and literary culture of Spain's Moriscos – the Muslims forcibly converted to Christianity in 1502 and expelled in the early seventeenth century. What books did these Moriscos read, how were they copied and how did they travel beyond Iberia to circulate among both Muslims and Christians of Early Modern Europe? In discussing these questions, Professor García Arenal explores some fascinating exchanges between Islam and Christianity and illustrates how the dynamic process of transmission and reception gave rise to different forms of revision and reuse according to social, religious and political circumstance.

Her case study will be the Apología contra la ley cristiana, a polemical treatise written in Morocco by the Morisco exile Muhammad Alguazir at the behest of Sultan Mawlay Zaydan, during the Morisco expulsions of 1609-1614.

Professor García-Arenal's talk will be based on an adapted and extended version of a lecture presented at the prestigious Lyell Lecture Series in Oxford (April 28 – May 11). It will be followed by short responses from three experts in related fields and a general discussion by all participants.

Space is very limited. Reservation by Ticket Tailor required.

For enquiries, and (optionally) to request a copy of the extended version of her paper, please email julian.weiss@kcl.ac.uk.

Programme

3.30-3.55: Light refreshments

3.55-4.00: Welcome and Introduction (Julian Weiss, King's College London)

4.00-4.30: Mercedes García-Arenal, 'Muslim Books in Muslim and Christian Hands:

The Polemical Treatise of Muhammad Alguazir'

4.30-5.00: Responses and Panel Discussion

Rachel Scott (Royal Holloway, University of London)

Ana Struillou (King's College London)

Alexander Samson (University College London)

5.00-5.30: Open Discussion and Future Research (Moderator, Julian Weiss)